The highest leverage use of my time is to sit at my desk and work on the underlying business systems that power MarketBeat – our sign-up forms, our internal CRM, our internal ad server, our monetization flows, our distribution systems (email/SMS), our marketing campaign triggers, etc. All these things work together to generate revenue for …
I recently sat down with Vlad Strizheus from Vavosa, a Sioux Falls-based agency that manages YouTube ads, to discuss business. Vlad had a bunch of questions he wanted to ask me, and I figured if he was asking them, there were probably other founders and entrepreneurs wondering about some of the same things. So instead …
The second quarter of the year was a full one, with a mix of family travel, business growth, community involvement, and a few personal milestones. Summer is officially underway in our house, MarketBeat continues to evolve in meaningful ways, and several projects I’ve been involved with in Sioux Falls are gaining momentum. This update covers …
We are entering a brave new world. The future of work is changing faster than anyone could have imagined. A.I. agents are working alongside human employees to perform vital work functions at many companies. Productivity in white-collar work environments is skyrocketing due to the rapid adoption of A.I. tools like Claude, Claude Code, and ChatGPT. …
This is a written version of my presentation at the New Media Summit live event. While this is my original content, I used an A.I. tool to summarize my presentation and turn it into an article. You can get the recording from my talk and all other talks at the event here. I hope you …
MarketBeat’s YouTube channel has grown quickly over the past few years, and so has the work behind it. We publish daily financial content watched by thousands of investors, and behind every video, we are focused on clarity, speed, and performance. To support that growth, we are hiring a Video Production Coordinator to join our video …
2026 marks the eighth anniversary of these quarterly updates. They serve as my personal newsletter, offering a way for friends, family, and others to follow my professional career and personal life. This quarter, my update is very professionally focused. With Homegrown Capital completing a successful raise for its second fund and MarketBeat crossing $50 million …
Last month, I turned 40 years old. As I look back on the last decade, I am generally satisfied with how my life has progressed. I continue to be happily married to my wife, Karine. We have two great kids and two dogs that we adore (yes, two!). To say that business has gone well …
At MarketBeat, we’ve always believed that building a great company starts with building a great team. That belief has guided MarketBeat’s growth over the past decade, taking us from a small group of early team members to a company that now serves more than 20 million website visitors each month and delivers daily newsletters to …
My Quarterly Update: Q3 2025 Fifteen years ago, I considered myself a “portfolio entrepreneur” who had several very small online businesses together that made up a full-time income. I had personal finance websites, a press release distribution service, a SaaS that helped animal shelters raise money (GoGo Photo Contest), an online audiobook directory, and several …
My Quarterly Update: Q2 2025. A few weeks ago, I met with a missionary named Chris for lunch. Our family has supported his work for many years and he and I have lunch once or twice per year to catch up. He told me about all the exciting things happening in his life, including becoming …
Are you a senior-level web developer looking for a high-impact role in a fast-growing company? MarketBeat is looking for an experienced back-end developer to join our team. Every day, we deliver stock market news to over 5 million investors, with our website attracting 20+ million visitors per month. Our work is dynamic, fast-paced, and always …
2025 marks the seventh anniversary of publishing quarterly updates on my blog. These updates serve as a tool to provide updates about my family, MarketBeat, Homegrown Capital, and the different community initiatives that MarketBeat supports. Many friends and acquaintances have told me they enjoy reading these updates, so I continue to write them and publish …
As we close out another quarter, it’s time to reflect on the opportunities and challenges that have shaped the last few months. This quarter brought a mix of personal and professional milestones, with a steady balance between family time and business growth. While some aspects of the market remain uncertain, we’ve continued to push forward …
My Quarterly Update: Q3 2024 A concept that I have been thinking a lot about lately is staying power. The longer that you work at something, the more likely you are likely to achieve outsized success. If you can work at the same job or on the same business for many years, even decades, eventually …
This past weekend, I had the incredible opportunity to return to Dakota State University, my alma mater, in a role I never imagined when I graduated there sixteen years ago. Back then, I stood on the commencement stage as a hopeful young graduate, filled with dreams and anticipation for the future. This year, I …
My Quarterly Update: Q2 2024 “What drives you? What motivates you to do all that you do?” These two questions were recently asked of me by a local reporter who wanted to feature MarketBeat as part of an upcoming city event. They’re great questions, and we should all ask ourselves periodically. Why do we do …
My Quarterly Update: Q1 2024 For the last decade, I have been of the belief that there is immense value in creating a personal brand. A strong personal brand allows you to meet interesting people, develop long-term business relationships, and make a positive impact on people around the world. In some ways, I have been …
As I have gotten a little bit older, I have come to realize that the most effective people in the world do just a handful of things and do them extremely well. MarketBeat continues to grow, and I am entering what is likely to be the most demanding phase of my career. To be a …
In today’s world, finding the right company to work for can make all the difference. If you’re an experienced Digital Marketing Director or a Senior Graphic and Web Designer looking to level up your career, keep reading to learn why you should consider working at MarketBeat. As the largest digital media company in the Dakotas, …
I have recently gotten on a kick of watching videos of dead and dying malls on YouTube from creators like Dan Bell. These videos show highlights from when a given mall was at its peak and show how it has decayed over time. Some are even totally abandoned, filled with mold, and have collapsed ceilings. …
Crossing the finish line has been my theme for 2023 so far. Several business projects, such as MarketBeat’s new office, are coming to fruition this year. Many of Cresten’s commercial real estate projects that were started in 2020 and 2021 will be fully stabilized this year. Startup Sioux Falls’ downtown transition is complete. I am …
Last week I took the stage at the Trendigital Summit to share my knowledge on the top 10 ways to improve your email marketing program in just 10 minutes. If you missed out on this event, go ahead and watch the replay here or download the presentation handout. We continue to see great results at …
2023 marks the fifth anniversary of publishing quarterly updates on my blog. These updates serve as a tool to provide updates about my family, my businesses, and the community initiatives that I support. Many friends, family members, and online followers have told me they really enjoy reading these updates, and I plan to continue publishing …
A new chapter of life has begun for the Paulson household. Both Micah and Ady are in school full time, marking the first time in ten years that Karine and I haven’t had a child at home during the day since Micah was born in 2012. Our children are also becoming more independent for their …
To make it on the Inc. 5000 list, you need to hit a three-year growth of 30-40%. MarketBeat has done that for seven consecutive years now. Since we first made the Inc. 5000 list in 2016, we’ve actually multiplied our top-line revenue by 10x while maintaining great margins. I was recently invited by Brandon Maddox, …
Summer 2022 has been marked by travel, writing, church activities, and focusing on my work at MarketBeat. It has also felt like a time of preparation for the pending transitions that will be happening both personally and professional in the next year. Both of my children will be in elementary school in the fall. Several …
I received a text from my friend John. “Have you minted your Moonbird yet?” My first thought was, “What’s a Moonbird?” I quickly learned that Moonbirds are an NFT project from the Proof Collective and as a holder of a Proof Collective pass, I could mint (create) a Moonbird NFT before everyone else. This was …
2022 is shaping up to be a year of significant transition both personally and professionally. Our daughter Ady will be entering Kindergarten this fall, marking the first time we have had two kids in school full time since Micah was born in 2012. As MarketBeat grows, My role at the company is transitioning away being …
Eight years ago, I made my first angel investment in a company called Tradesy via Tim Ferris’s AngelList syndicate. Within a matter of months, I made several more investments in startup companies via AngelList. I also made a couple of angel investments directly in local companies. I didn’t know what I was doing at the …
Over the past few years, it has become apparent that Sioux Falls needs to rethink how it serves startup businesses if we are to be successful as a state that fosters entrepreneurship. The legacy model of business incubation in a dedicated startup facility simply will not work in an era marked by remote work, ubiquitous …
MarketBeat is an Inc. 5000 financial media company that empowers equity investors to make better trading decisions with real-time financial data, in-depth analysis, and best-in-class stock research tools. MarketBeat has been recognized by Barron’s, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., and Prairie Business for its rapid growth and success. With more than 2.5 million email subscribers, MarketBeat is …
Over the last several weeks, I have been putting together a list of goals and projects that I hope to see come to fruition in the next year. As I look at the list, 2022 is shaping up to be a big year for both my career and the community organizations that I volunteer with. …
Earlier this year, MarketBeat partnered with Remedy Brewing Company to produce MarketBrew, a limited-run charity beer in support of Call to Freedom, an anti-human trafficking organization in South Dakota. We created a short documentary about the project, which you can watch below.
When you are a community leader, sometimes the most exciting projects you are working on can’t be discussed publicly because they aren’t quite ready for primetime or because all of the pieces necessary to complete the project haven’t fallen into place. You might find yourself working on an important project for months, sometimes even years, …
Over the last fifteen years of running online businesses, I have had the opportunity to test and leverage many different marketing channels, including email, browser notifications, Twitter accounts, Facebook messenger bots, Instagram accounts, YouTube channels, and a few others. Just about every year, some new social media company comes out and encourages businesses and influencers …
South Dakota has some unique challenges when building community and capital resources for startup founders. We have a small and spread-out population compared to the rest of the country. There are also just fewer people working on developing high-growth technology startups at any given time, which makes it difficult to build a non-profit organization around …
Developing a healthy startup ecosystem is important for any community because it provides entrepreneurs, startup founders, and small business owners critical business resources in the earliest stages of their businesses. It’s not always clear which startup will become the next major employer in town, but by offering resources to all of them, we can be …
MarketBeat’s growth has been strong in 2021 since we added three new staff positions in March. In order to continue our growth strategy, we are expanding our team once again and adding three new positions. As our premium subscriptions grow and as our website traffic is picking up after a brief summer slowdown, now is …
We have just eighteen summers with our children before they head off to college or into the working world. Over the course of a life, this is a small window to make memories with our little ones before they are not so little anymore. Summer 2020 was unique for many given that everyone’s schedules suddenly …
During the World Wide Developer Conference earlier in June, Apple announced that its mail client would start blocking tracking pixels which allow email marketers to know when a user has opened their email. Tracking pixels, which are referred to by some as “spy pixels,” are primarily used to determine which subscribers are active and which …
Giving back is a major responsibility that businesspeople have to the communities that helped make them successful. I owe a lot of my success to my parents for the opportunities and access to technology they provided me as a child, to Dakota State University which provided me with a world-class computer science education and the …
One of the things about MarketBeat that I am most proud of is that we have never had any employee turnover in the company’s 13-year history of incorporation. We have only ever hired 12 people over the last decade, but we never had anyone quit or otherwise leave the company until last week. Our first …
Two things that matter a lot to MarketBeat are giving back to the community and having fun. Sioux Falls saw these values on full display when we launched the MarketBeat Burger at Chef Lance’s on Phillips for the DTSF Burger Battle and donated more than $31,000 to Call to Freedom for their work in helping …
Raising money for a small business or startup is perhaps easier now than it ever has been. There’s still a significant learning curve when it comes to identifying potential angel investors, getting a meeting with them and pitching your startup. Nick Horob from Harvest Profit and I recently did a webinar for Startup Sioux Falls …
If you were to tell yourself from two years ago that you would be wearing masks whenever you are out in public, that people would be migrating to different parts of the country because of public health lockdowns, and that your biggest hope for 2021 will be to get a new vaccine that was just …
During our last Falls Angel Fund meeting, we heard investment pitches from three high-growth startup companies that are based in the Dakota’s. One company was a software and services business that we had invested in an earlier round. One was a new software company seeking capital for the first time. The third was an early-stage …
The startup ecosystem in Sioux Falls is in the strongest place it has been in the last decade. There are two successful accelerator programs that have multiple cohorts each year (Falls Fintech and Co-Starters). Zeal’s new startup mentor network has 28 volunteer entrepreneurial mentors. Falls Angel Fund has made more than $3 million in startup …
Every now and then I receive a text, an email or a Facebook message asking me, “Hey, what do you think of [Person], that marketing and business guru that’s all over Facebook/YouTube/Instagram?” It can be difficult to determine if any given business expert or marketing guru is the real deal merely by looking at their …
Leadership Sioux Falls is a leadership development class put on by the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce that provides emerging leaders with personal development skills, education about local and state governments and professional networking opportunities. I’ve been meaning to apply to Leadership Sioux Falls for the last several years, but the dates always conflicted …
Beginning this year, Sioux Falls will celebrate Entrepreneurship Day on the first Wednesday of March. For the 2021 celebration taking place on March 3, the general public is invited to join the festivities by participating in a host of events organized by the teams at the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship (Zeal) and Startup Sioux Falls. …
NOTE: These positions have all been filled as of 3/31/2021. MarketBeat’s growth has been astonishing over the last several months. We’ve added more than 2,000 new premium subscribers in the last 90 days, had more than 20 million people visit MarketBeat.com in January and are forecasting more than 100% revenue growth in 2021. To manage …
You are a savvy business owner. Maybe you listen to marketing podcasts and have read some popular business books. You understand that one of your business’s most valuable assets is its customer and prospect lists. You put an email sign-up form on your website to build your audience, perhaps incentivized by a discount coupon, a …
January has come and gone. The Downtown Sioux Falls Burger Battle has officially come to an end. The final MarketBeat Burger has been grilled and served, and Chef Lance finally has a welcome reprieve from making pork belly and brisket patties. Approximately 25,000 burgers were sold as part of the 2021 DTSF Burger Battle. Nearly …
One of my goals for 2020 was to wrap up some entrepreneurial side projects so that MarketBeat is the only company that I have an operating role in. There were a couple of little websites that I got rid of and a real-estate investment club that I was part of that disbanded, but GoGo Photo …
With the total train wreck that 2020 was behind us, there is a lot of reason for optimism in the air. More and more people are getting the COVID vaccine every day. Business has been good at MarketBeat and the Sioux Falls economy seems well despite the pandemic. Karine and I find great joy in …
It was the morning of November 2nd. Some of MarketBeat’s team members were working at our downtown office, getting ready for that week’s staff meeting. Just as our meeting was about to start, a curious email came in from Downtown Sioux Falls, Inc. (DTSF). Here’s what the email said: The time has come to start …
When I was a student at Dakota State University, I paid close attention to the emails that were sent to all students. A lot of the emails were noise from student activities I was not interested in, but every now and then great opportunities were presented that any ambitious student could take advantage of. It …
The setting is Thanksgiving of 2010. Karine and I were engaged at the time and were planning a wedding the following summer. We spent the long weekend at her parents’ farm outside of Emery, South Dakota. The weekend was marked by energetic nieces and nephews, board games, walks on country roads and German chocolate pie. …
With 2020 mercifully coming to a close, I thought it would be a good time to highlight some of the non-fiction books that I have read this year. With two small children in our home, there is not a lot of uninterrupted free time to focus on a book. Consequently, most of my reading has …
A couple of weeks back, I was doing some routine monitoring of MarketBeat’s email engagement metrics and saw an interesting number appear on our dashboard: It turns out that MarketBeat has sent more than one billion emails in 2020 to our 1.75 million email subscribers with an average open rate of 21%. Any spammer can …
There are more than 500 registered non-profits that have 501(c)3 status in the greater Sioux Falls area, each with their own mission, vision, values, staff, and board of directors. Some non-profits operate on state or federal contracts or through grant programs, but most small non-profits rely primarily on charitable contributions from individual donors. One consequence …
2020 has been a year of growth for MarketBeat. Our email list has grown by more than 500,000 subscribers since the first of the year. We brought on two additional employees. We just crossed $10 million in revenue for the year and expect to see 75% year-over-year growth for the year. While we did see …
Every now and then I receive an email from someone that is looking for advice about building a mobile app for their business or non-profit. These conversations usually start along the lines of, “Hey, I have a great idea for an app. Who do I talk to?” or “Do you know any good app developers?” …
As I write this post, COVID-19 numbers are spiking across the Midwestern states and there are more active cases now than at any point during the pandemic. While COVID-19 numbers do not look great in South Dakota currently, there does still seem to be a sense that things are slowly returning to normal. Micah and …
At the beginning of the year, it looked like 2020 was going to be a big year for the Sioux Falls startup community. We had gotten into a groove of running 1 Million Cups weekly, doing monthly startup events for Startup Sioux Falls and Zeal, and were planning a couple of bigger events as well. …
For the last twelve years, I have largely worked in solitude in front of a computer screen. First as a remote employee and then later as a business owner, most of my workday as been spent at home or in a small office with minimal human contact during the day. Even today, there are at …
Sioux Falls, SD, August 15, 2020 – Inc. Magazine has ranked MarketBeat No. 2296 on its 39th annual Inc. 5000 list, an exclusive ranking of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in the United States. 2020 marked the 5th year that MarketBeat has been included on the Inc. 5000 list, giving the company a coveted “Hall of Fame” …
Our new office space partially sits on an old loading dock, which includes manholes for drainage. The manhole covers that were in the space previously were cracked, beaten up and likely as old as the building itself. I asked the question, “What would it take to make some new manhole covers that have the MarketBeat …
Over the last couple of months, I have had the opportunity to start wrapping up some long-term projects and “clear the plate” to make room for some new adventures in my life. Many people, including myself, have the bad habit of continuing to do things long after they have finished serving their purpose simply because …
I had the opportunity to be on a panel discussion about how COVID-19 has impacted the information technology industry in Sioux Falls. Other panelists included Natalie Eisenberg, Click Rain; Dr. JoseMarie Griffiths, Dakota State University ; Mike Grigsby, City of Sioux Falls; and Michael Zuercher, Prismatic. You can watch the recording below: Spark Sioux Falls …
Last May, I was approached by Alex Jensen to help him with his campaign for an at-large city council seat in Sioux Falls. I felt that we needed a different kind of elected official in that position and agreed to serve as his campaign treasurer. For the first six months of the campaign, our primary …
For the longest time, my team did not want to get an office. They instead preferred working out of their homes, coffee shops, and coworking spaces. It was hard to blame them. Many offices are barebones spaces with white walls, fluorescent lighting, industrial carpet and just enough furniture to get work done. Even newly designed …
During the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we all learned what life would be like with fewer obligations. Business meetings, church services, kids’ activities and other events all got put on hold and we all found ourselves with a lot more free time. Personally, I went from averaging 10-15 in-person meetings per week to …
Looking back at my most recent quarterly update, it’s amazing to see how much the world has changed in such a short period of time. A little over a month ago, we were attending church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night, our children were in school and we had a full travel schedule planned for …
We find ourselves in unprecedented times. Many small businesses have had to close their doors and furlough employees with no idea when they might be able to re-open. Unemployment claims have hit an all-time high and some are predicting that COVID-19 related job losses could reach 47 million. The United States economy is undoubtedly in …
I received a message the other day from a high school classmate about what opportunities exist to invest in small businesses and startups when you’re not accredited. There’s no simple and easy way to do this, but I highlight some opportunities in this video. Watch on YouTube (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read …
At the 2020 Sioux Falls Business Expo, I presented a talk that discussed various ways to raise money for small businesses and startups. Thanks to the help of Joshua Novak and Main St. Media House, I was able to record the presentation so that is can be distributed more widely. Here you will find my …
Fourteen years ago, I made a decision that fundamentally changed my life. I chose to stop living for my own selfish ambitions and recommitted my life to Christ as a sophomore in college at Dakota State University. Through the work of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and West Center Baptist Church, I recognized that there was a …
These thoughts are my own and are not necessarily those of the Startup Sioux Falls, the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship or any other organization I may be involved with. With the launch of the new Zeal + Startup Sioux Falls website, the merger between the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship and Startup Sioux Falls is now …
A while back, I was invited to participate in a focus group of business leaders for the Sioux Falls Brand project which is a collaboration of the City, the Chamber, and the Development Foundation to develop a consistent brand and logo to use when promoting the city. The consultants asked our group several questions about …
For the last seven years, marketers have had the ability to send push notifications to website visitors directly through their web browsers using a technology called web push notifications. A website can issue a prompt to a user in their web browser asking them if they want to receive notifications from that website. If they …
There are more than 500 non-profits that have 501c3 status in the Sioux Falls metro. The IRS requires each 501c3 to have a governing board of at least three members to maintain their tax-exempt status. Some non-profit boards exist in name only and others are high-profile, high-effort volunteer roles that require a significant commitment but …
MarketBeat had a successful New Year’s sale that ran from December 26th to January 3rd. We’ve done this for the last few years and the results keep getting better every year. I’m not 100% sure what makes the window between Christmas and the New Year a particularly good time to promote our newsletter and software …
(Watch this Video on YouTube) A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to attend a Christmas party that entrepreneur Kevin Tupy held for his real estate and business development firm, Cresten Capital Holdings. It was held at the new Tavern 180 restaurant and the food was top-notch (try the Chicken Parmesan, you won’t regret …
It’s Christmas Eve as I publish this. MarketBeat’s work has largely wrapped up for the year. Our startup community events are on pause until mid-January. The never-ending buzz of social media has slowed to a crawl and my email inbox is surprisingly empty. Our kids are eagerly awaiting their Christmas presents and Micah is excited …
Startup Sioux Falls and Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship first hosted a Morning Marketing Party on October 4th. It was a great success with over 55 people in attendance, and we have decided to do it again! Please join us at Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship on Friday, February 14th at 8:30 AM. This is an opportunity …
(Watch this Video on YouTube) Financial author David Bach is famous for teaching a concept called “The Latte Factor,” which is the idea that recurring small purchases like coffee, cigarettes and ordering pizza add up to a ridiculous amount of money over the course of a lifetime. For example, if you were to buy a …
(Watch this Video on YouTube) 2008 was a very bad year for many industries. The financial media space, which MarketBeat operates in, was perhaps the worst hit. Investors took money out of the stock market in droves as the S&P 500 lost 50% of its value during the 18-month bear market that lasted between October …
By the end of 2019, MarketBeat will have sent over 1.5 billion emails since I launched the business in 2011. We’re currently sending out more than 60 million emails per month to our 1.25 million subscribers. Our ability to send large amounts of email to our customers has scaled nicely over the years, but it …
In the last couple of weeks, our startup community has welcomed a fresh set of eyes that has provided a very helpful outside perspective on the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities that our startup ecosystem has. Zeal has brought on Kate Flemming, who was most recently the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Millikin University, …
Looking for a creative way to grow your email list for your business or non-profit? This video shows a creative hack that lets you use Facebook and EventBrite to build your mailing list. (Watch this Video on YouTube)
Startup Sioux Falls and and Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship will be hosting a mini-mastermind event on November 27th at 9:00 AM at Zeal, 2329 N Career Avenue. This is getting to become somewhat of an annual tradition the day before Thanksgiving. Since 1 Million Cups usually takes that day off, we have this opportunity to …
(Watch this Video on YouTube) The topic of hiring has come up a lot recently in the Startup Sioux Falls community and this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone given our city’s historically-low unemployment rate. Chelsea Giedd, a local boutique owner in Sioux Falls, recently published a series of podcast episodes about hiring and that …
I’m pleased to announce another new event being put on by Startup Sioux Falls and Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship: Failure Fest. Most small businesses and startups fail, and that’s okay. Failure Fest is a unique event that celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit and recognizes that trying and failing to do something important is better than never …
When it comes to email marketing, having a bigger list is not always better. It’s not the marketer with the biggest email list that wins, it’s the marketer that has the most engaged audience that wins. Email service providers are looking at engagement statistics (open rates, clickthrough rates, subscriber replies, spam reports) more than ever …
I have been organizing community events for small business owners, startup founders and entrepreneurs for the last five years through a variety of different organizational umbrellas. The first event that I organized entirely on my own accord was a mini-mastermind event on November 26th, 2014 at the Sioux Falls Design Center. Since then, I’ve been …
I’m pleased to announce a Halloween event for the Sioux Falls Startup community. Startup Sioux Falls and Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship are hosting “Startup Horror Stories” on Thursday, October 31st at 9am. The event will take place out at Zeal, 2329 N Career Avenue. This event is geared toward small business owners and startup founders. …
This simple and underutilized email marketing tactic generated 40% additional clicks on our most recent email campaign at MarketBeat. (Watch this Video on YouTube)
About a year and a half ago, I began to sense there were some unmet needs in our small business and startup community. While there are approximately 4,300 businesses with fewer than 20 employees operating in the Sioux Falls MSA, we had difficulty getting more than fifty entrepreneurs to attend our 1 Million Cups event …
25 meetings in one week. I have no idea how I did that, but that was my life earlier this year. Over the summer, I set a hard cap of 10 meetings a week on my calendar and here’s what happened. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough …
I had the privilege of being on a panel with Ryan Swanstrom from Swanstrom Analytics and Jodi Schwan from SiouxFalls.Business at the South Dakota Technology Showcase event, which is put on by SDN Communications. During the panel, we discussed artificial intelligence initiatives from South Dakota companies, the role that higher education plays in training technology …
I am going to try to get back in the habit of publishing quarterly updates about the various projects that I’m involved with. It can honestly be difficult for me to keep track of everything that I’m working on at any given time and these posts provide me the opportunity to think through each project …
I’m excited to announce a new event coming up in about a week – the Morning Marketing Party. Being an entrepreneur or small business owner is sometimes a lonely gig, so opportunities like this are a great way to find connections while hopefully picking up a tip or two for your business. On Friday, October …
Watch this Video on YouTube A couple of years ago, I was facing a significant issue with how my free time was being spent. MarketBeat was growing like a weed and I had become involved in a variety of non-profit volunteer roles. At the same time, I was getting all sorts of requests for …
Last fall, I penned an article titled “What Would a Startup Ecosystem Organization Look Like in Sioux Falls?” which discussed the different components that the startup ecosystem in Sioux Falls would need to be operating at full capacity. Our community has made a lot of progress since then with the launch of Startup Sioux Falls, …
(Watch this Video on YouTube) One of the most difficult components of running a non-profit organization is finding funding. You’ve got a great mission that you believe in. You’re incredibly passionate about the work your non-profit is doing and you genuinely think you can make a dent in the issue that your non-profit is …
In some entrepreneurial circles, having sold out of a business is a badge of honor. You created something from nothing. You built a profitable business and your business was so attractive that someone wrote you a big check and bought you out. You’ve got a pile of money in the bank and now you’re free …
We all ascribe ourselves many labels that describe who we are to the world. One label I’ve carried for the last decade is “startup founder”, but I recently realized that MarketBeat is no longer a startup. In this video, I talk about the five signs that your business is no longer in start-up mode. Watch …
At the 2019 YPN Crossroads Summit, I prepared a talk that discusses the trends surrounding remote work and how we do remote work at MarketBeat. Thanks to the help of Josh Novak and Main Street Media, I was able to record the presentation so that it can be distributed more widely. Below you will find …
We are now just under six months into operations of Startup Sioux Falls. During that time, our primary efforts have been around content creation and building an online community for small business owners and startup founders in the Sioux Falls area. We’ve highlighted the stories of 16 ecosystem organizations and community groups. We’ve published 9 …
For years, I resisted the idea of having an assistant at MarketBeat due to my middle-class mindset. I finally hired an assistant two months ago and that decision has forever benefited my ability to get work done and spend more time with my family. Watch on Facebook (Watch this Video on Facebook) Watch on YouTube …
I’ve been building online businesses since 2006 and I’ve run into some interesting people in circumstances during that time. From the illegal translation of one of my books to the 80-year-old man that threatened to drive to Sioux Falls and beat me up, it’s been a wild ride. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to …
Two years ago, I wrote a comprehensive article covering the state of co-working in Sioux Falls at the time. The Bakery, which was the largest standalone co-working space in Sioux Falls at the time, was on the verge of closing and Meso, another co-working space, had closed the year earlier. This left the Zeal Center …
You’ve probably heard the idea that “You become the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” There’s a corollary to that saying you might not have heard of. It’s that “You become the content you consume.” I talk about it in this video. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read …
Do you want to open a new retail store or local services business in your community? In this video, I talk about what it takes to raise money to launch your business and get it off the ground. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script I used …
MarketBeat has a unique hybrid remote work environment. We don’t spend all day every day in an office together, but we’re also not completely remote either. We’ve developed a system that we think gives us the benefits of working in an office together, without having to be in an office 40 hours each week. (Watch …
I’m trying an experiment during the summer. I’m setting a hard cap on the number of meetings I’ll take each week to protect my time for my family and my business. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script I used for this video. Matt Paulson here. In …
Can you publish too much content to your social media channels? Will people unfollow you for being a prolific content creator? I have some thoughts. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script I used for this video. Matt Paulson here. In this video, I want to discuss …
I used to write a monthly update post about the various projects that I’ve been working on. I’ve gotten out of the habit of doing it lately, but since I’m on vacation this week, I thought I would write an “update post” in lieu of the weekly videos that I have been doing this year. …
The principle I discuss in this video was something I discovered in 2013 when my business was beginning to get some traction. I don’t claim to be the first person to discover this principle, but when I applied it in my life, my business’s revenue and my personal income doubled every year for three consecutive …
There are many different reasons small businesses and startups fail, but there are four traits that I’ve seen in every successful entrepreneur I’ve ever met. I talk about them in this video. #startups #business #business #marketing #entrepreneurship #startup #souxfalls (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script I …
In this video, I argue why you should unsubscribe from all of the business podcasts that you listen to. It’s not the reason that you think. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script I used for this video. Matt Paulson here. In this video, I am going …
Startup Sioux Falls is about 6 weeks into its operations and I thought it would be a good time to give an update on what we’ve accomplished so far with the brand and what we’re hoping to do moving forward. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script …
In this video, I discuss the experience I’ve had with my local chamber of commerce and whether or not you should join your local chamber of commerce. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script I used for this video. For a long time, I thought being part …
Last week, Andy Jorgensen from Firebrothers Fireworks and I had the privilege of spending a day with some key stakeholders of the startup ecosystem in Fargo, North Dakota. I had dinner with local startup founders, met with some NDSU entrepreneurship students, spoke at their local chapter of 1 Million Cups, and met with the team …
The 1 Million Cups community in Fargo, North Dakota invited Andy Jorgensen from Firebrothers Fireworks and myself to speak at their weekly event. We had the opportunity to travel to Fargo last week and talk about our businesses. The team at Forum Communications was kind enough to record our talks and the Q&A for posterity. …
Do you plan on being successful? You will almost certainly attract a small group of haters that speak poorly of you, minimize your success and talk about you behind your back. Every successful person I know has a few haters. It comes with the territory. People will project their own insecurities on you and use …
Have you tried and failed to get your business covered by the local newspaper, television stations or local radio stations? It’s not hard to get featured in the local press, but there are three rules you must follow to get your business media coverage. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Here’s some of the media coverage …
Today, I am pleased to announce the creation of Startup Sioux Falls. Startup Sioux Falls is a digital hub that connects entrepreneurs to the startup ecosystem and startup community in the Sioux Falls metro area. You can think of Startup Sioux Falls as one-stop shop to learn about resources available to entrepreneurs and small business owners, to …
The second edition of my best-selling email marketing book, Email Marketing Demystified, is now available on Amazon. It is currently available in paperback and Kindle formats and will be available as an audiobook soon. —– Last fall, I was teaching a class on email marketing at the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship in my hometown of …
I can’t count the number of times that I have explained to people what service MarketBeat provides to stock investors. I’ve tried communicating our business model in several different ways, such as saying it’s a financial news service or a stock portfolio monitoring tool. I’m still not sure people really fully understand what our business …
Falls Angel Fund just made its 10th and final investment. In this video, I provide some unscripted thoughts and retrospective about the fund and what I learned in the process. (Watch this Video on YouTube)
Building a business is an inherently risky proposition, so much so that 70% of companies fail within the first ten years of operations. How do you build a business that stands the test of time? Here are four key ideas that will help your business make it to ten years or more. (Watch this Video …
For several years, I posted a list of books I read every year, but fell out of the habit of doing that after 2015. I continue to read about 25 non-fiction books each year, because I truly believe in the classic quote from Charley Tremendous Jones: “You will be the same person in five years …
BREAKING: The second edition of Email Marketing Demystified is coming out on March 25th! Last fall, I was teaching a class on email marketing at the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship in my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. During the question and answer section of my talk, a friend noted that Email Marketing Demystified was …
If you’re building a business, you have to stay on top of your personal finances because your business’s finances and your personal finances will intertwine whether you realize it or not. In this video, I discuss six different financial metrics that you should track on relating to your personal finances. (Watch this Video on YouTube) …
(Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script I used for this video. Whenever you’re going into business, your goal at the end of the day is to be able to take money home from your business so that you have an income to provide for your family, …
Given the sheer number of online scams, consumers will be naturally skeptical when they visit your website for the first time. In this video, I show nine different ways that you can foster trust with the people visiting your website, making them more likely to trust your brand and purchase from your company. (Watch this …
Are you looking to help grow the startup community or ecosystem in your city? There are three key things that you can do to help bring more startups to your city. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Want to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script I used for this video. I live in Sioux …
Having your business name trademarked can be an incredibly valuable thing for your business, because it prevents other businesses in your category from using your name. Learn why you might want a trademark and why trying to file a trademark yourself might be a bad idea. Watch this Video on YouTube Here’s a rough script …
March 6th, 2019 marks the five year anniversary of 1 Million Cups in Sioux Falls. In March 2014, we held the first 1 Million Cups event at Queen City Bakery and heard from Andy Traub of Take Permission Marketing. 1 Million Cups has since expanded to more than 100 cities across the country, helping answer …
What should you do when someone copies your business? Your first inclination will be to get mad at them for stealing your idea, but that may not be the most helpful thing for your business. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Here’s a rough script if you prefer to read instead of watch: In this video, …
If you’re looking to raise money to start a business, your first course of action might to go seek out angel investors to fund your business. This works if you’re running a business that has the opportunity to reach national scale, but there are other financing options you should consider if you are developing a …
Totally unplugging from your business isn’t easy, especially if you run an online business that’s generating cash every hour of every day of the year. I’ve made a personal commitment to unplug from my business more this year and here’s what I’m doing to make it happen. (Watch This Video on YouTube) Want to read …
MarketBeat has created seven-figure revenue streams with email and web push notifications, now we’re going to try it with SMS. I believe SMS could be the next big marketing channel for our business, and maybe yours as well. Watch this Video on YouTube Here’s a rough script if you prefer to read instead of watch: …
Watch this video on YouTube. Last fall, I was teaching a free class on email marketing at a local entrepreneurship center in my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. During the question and answer section of my talk, a friend noted that Email Marketing Demystified was written in 2015 and wondered if there was any …
Last fall, we had a speaker cancellation at 1 Million Cups and John Meyer suggested we experiment with an “ask me anything” format where the speaker didn’t have a prepared talk and the audience could ask the speaker anything they wanted to. I agreed to be the guinea pig for this format and you can …
It’s early January and you’re setting your business and personal goals for the year. Your first inclination might be to set a big financial goal, but achieving that goal may be a hollow victory. Watch This Video on YouTube Here’s a rough script I used for this video if you prefer to read than watch: …
A lot of people have built 7-figure and 8-figure online businesses by selling through Amazon FBA, but does that opportunity still exist in 2019? I wouldn’t try to start a new Amazon business in 2019 and here’s why. Watch the Video on YouTube here Want to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script I …
Watch this video on YouTube. Here’s a rough script I used for this video if you prefer to read: If you’re starting a business, one of the hardest aspects is finding your early customers. You don’t know what works for advertising. You may not be 100% certain who your ideal customers are. You just know …
Every year, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development puts on a startup competition for South Dakota residents. There are some good reasons to apply and participate in the competition, but there are limits on how beneficial it can be for your company. Watch This Video on YouTube Learn more about Giant Vision at http://www.southdakotagiantvision.com/ Here’s …
Every now and then, someone asks me what digital marketing and entrepreneurship conferences I’ll be attending in 2019. In this video, I discuss which conferences I’m attending and why I attend each one year after year. (Watch this video on YouTube)
Depending on the type of business you run and who your customers , you should look to find social proof from different places. In this video, I discuss what types of businesses should seek accreditation from the Better Business Bureau and which should focus on Facebook and Google reviews. Watch this video on YouTube
Mike Vetter (CEO of DataSync), Tom Eitreim (Manager of Angel Funds and Market Research at The Enterprise Institute), Dwaine Chapel (Executive Director of The Research Park at South Dakota State University) and I sat down with Jackelyn Severin from South Dakota Public Broadcasting for their Making a Living program to discuss the start of venture …
Whenever I run into someone I haven’t seen in a while, they invariable ask me, “What are you working on next?” I hear this question at least twice per week from people that I run into in the community. I don’t always have a great answer to that question, because if I thought something was …
I largely took a break from creating content and community building in 2018 to double down on MarketBeat. I plan on doing three big things to grow entrepreneurship in my community, as well as my personal brand as an entrepreneurial thought leader, in 2019. Learn more about them in this video. Watch The Video on …
When you’re bringing on a new member to your team, it’s important to set them up for success. You want employees to be informed about your business, inspired to do great work and equipped with the tools they need to do their job well. We just brought on two new employees to MarketBeat. In this …
Watch this video on YouTube. For the last several years, MarketBeat has been a small team of four. We had written down some core values in 2013. I wanted to pull them up because we had a couple of new employees and wanted to instill them into our employees. The problem was I couldn’t find …
MarketBeat had significant growth in 2018, but a lot of that growth sat on my shoulders. I have been at my work capacity for a while now, and my goal for 2019 is to build a business that can thrive without me and stand the test of time. To help achieve this goal, we have …
MarketBeat’s revenue grew by 71% in 2018, but it didn’t happen because of some amazing new marketing strategy, significant prices increases, new employees/talent, or an overheated market. There are two things we did in 2018 that allowed this growth to happen. We significantly increased advertising spend and I stopped trying to do any side projects …
As the public face of Falls Angel Fund, I receive a lot of inquiries from entrepreneurs and would-be business owners that are looking to raise money to get their businesses off the ground. In the past couple of weeks, I have received inquiries from an entrepreneur running a medical devices startup, an entrepreneur running a …
Between my commitments with MarketBeat, Zeal, Falls Angel Fund, 1 Million Cups and other organizations, I had 15 meetings this week. However, I could have had 10 more meetings if I had said yes to everyone that wanted to have a meeting with me to discuss their business or non-profit. There are four questions that …
Black Friday, Christmas and New Years are just around the corner. If you have an email list for your business, the holiday season is the best time of year to leverage your mailing list to generate sales. I recorded a live webinar on this subject. On the webinar, we talked talk about sequencing of messages, …
If you’re a business owner, hiring other entrepreneurs to work for you can be a double-edged sword. They can provide a significant contribution to your business, but may ultimately be unhappy working for someone else. I recorded a short video that has discusses the considerations if you’re thinking about hiring an entrepreneur to work for …
Some entrepreneurs believe they can’t compete with other players in an existing market and should try to invent a brand new business idea from the ground up. You should be able to corner a market and build a profitable business with no competitors, right? Turns out, that’s not usually the case. Existing competition in a …
I recently recorded a webinar on the basics of Email Marketing, including email service providers, list building, copy-writing, list monetization and list maintenance. You can also view the recording on YouTube here.
Please note that the thoughts expressed in this article are my own personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any group, organization or company that I am involved with. The next few months will be one of the busiest seasons for the entrepreneurial community in Sioux Falls in the last several years. A …
I had lofty goals of sending out a monthly update to keep you informed with what projects I’m working on this year, but that goal fell flat on its face like most New Year’s resolutions. There’s a lot going on at MarketBeat, in my personal life and in the Sioux Falls entrepreneurship scene, so I …
Each month, I meet with five to ten business owners that want to raise money for their startups. Since I’m the chair of a community angel investment fund, there are a lot of people that are told “go talk to Matt” when they ask around about raising capital to grow their business. I take as …
As the chair of a community-based angel investment fund, I receive a lot of meeting requests from business owners that want to have a conversation about raising money for their business. These entrepreneurs usually have minimal business development and fundraising experience and are looking for a way to fund their future growth. I rarely get much out …
Every successful community has a central hub for the sharing of ideas the facilitation of random social interactions. Churches have Sunday worship. Service clubs like Rotary and Kiwanis have weekly meetings. Geeks have game nights at local comic shops. These regular places of meeting provide members of a community a forum to engage other people …
Over the last 100 years, marketers have pushed the promises they make to consumers to the limit to generate sales in an increasingly competitive world. They have used sex, action, greed and urgency to capture the increasingly fickle attention of consumers. They have made outrageous claims and guarantees about their products that simply don’t stand …
I recently recorded a webinar on how MarketBeat has leveraged web push notifications, email marketing and Facebook Messenger to grow our business from $500,000 per year in 2013 to over $4 million per year in 2018. We go over several practical tips in this hour long recording (and there’s no sales pitch at the end!). …
One of the best ways to build a business in this decade is to capture the attention of an audience and then rent that attention to advertisers that want to talk to your audience. We have done this with MarketBeat by earning the attention of 575,000 individual investors that have subscribed to our daily email …
The following is a guest post by Victoria Greene. Victoria Greene is a branding consultant and freelance writer. On her blog, VictoriaEcommerce, you’ll find a wealth of articles covering how new business owners can get their brand off the ground. She is passionate about using her experience to help fellow entrepreneurs succeed. As anyone who has …
“What’s the first step to starting a business?” Common answers to this question include coming up with a name, figuring out who your target market is, identifying the products and services you want to sell, identifying a location for your business or setting up an LLC. These tasks are all important, but I would argue …
It’s been about a month since I sent out my last update, but here’s what’s been going on that you might find interesting: – MarketBeat is continuing to grow and it’s growing in a way that I hadn’t expected. Much of the growth has come from selling subscriptions. Currently about 2/3rds of our revenue is …
Entrepreneurship has been a passion for me since my formative years. I sold candy to friends in grade school to make a bit of cash. I made a website about SimCity 2000 in middle school that somehow earned $25.00 per month from ads. In college, I started a personal finance blog that quickly became an …
It’s been a few months since I last sent out a monthly update, but here’s what’s been going on that you might find interesting. – Earlier this year, I made a significant pivot to focus less on side projects and more on my core business (MarketBeat). I decided to stop publishing new books for the …
Toward the end of last year, I was seriously considering selling MarketBeat and moving on to my next project. The company did not see much growth in 2016 and I thought I had grown the business as large as I could with my current skill set. The work had become mundane and I just wasn’t …
I have been involved in the Sioux Falls entrepreneurial ecosystem for about four years now. During that time, I’ve seen many people get interested in entrepreneurship, make plans to start a company and give up when their business isn’t an immediate hit or they realize how much work it really is to start a company. …
For the last several years, I’ve tried to make a name for myself in the internet business education space in the same vein that Pat Flynn, John Lee Dumas, Jaime Tardy and many others have. The idea is that by branding oneself as an expert in the space, one can build an audience, sell digital …
Health and fitness is not a subject that I thought I would ever find myself writing about. I’ve never enjoyed strenuous exercise and have had an unhealthy appetite for soda, fast food and candy for as long as I can remember. I’ve been at least twenty-five pounds overweight since I graduated college. I had the …
If you’re an entrepreneur in the Sioux Falls area and you haven’t been to the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship, you are missing out on a hub of support and resources for growing businesses. The Zeal building, which is on the northwest side of Sioux Falls near Southeast Tech, houses a mix of idea-stage entrepreneurs, scaling …
Sioux Falls, SD, August 17, 2017 – Inc. Magazine has ranked MarketBeat No. 1,620 on its 36th annual Inc. 5000 list, an exclusive ranking of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in the United States. MarketBeat was named as the 4th fastest-growing company in the state of South Dakota, based on its three-year revenue growth of 243%. The …
Imagine an organization funded by the SBA, the DoD, the Department of Commerce, and the SDGOED, chartered by USD, and operating under the names SBDC, PTAC, MTS, and SBIR. If you think that getting help from this organization must be like visiting the DMV, you would be mistaken. It turns out that the South Dakota …
For every dollar that I have available to invest in start-up businesses, there are at least twenty people that would happily take that dollar and promise me big returns in the future. Since the vast majority of start-up businesses fail, I have the overwhelming task of determining which entrepreneurs that want my money will be …
A few weeks back, I wrote an important article focusing on the four things that the city of Sioux Falls will need if it is going to be a community that fosters new startup businesses that attract outside capital and create high-paying jobs. Since then, I have discussed capital availability, building community, and storytelling as …
Where can an entrepreneur go for guidance when their product is selling like hotcakes but they can’t keep up with demand? Or when they can’t make necessary hires because of cashflow issues? Or when the only way to bring their product to market is to build a multi-million dollar processing facility, and they don’t yet …
A few weeks ago, I published an important post highlighting four things that the city of Sioux Falls will need if it’s going to become a city that fosters new startup businesses that create high-paying jobs and attract outside capital. Since then, I’ve dived a bit deeper into the topics of making capital available to …
It’s amazing how much can change in your personal and professional life in six short months. At the beginning of the year, I published a list of written personal and professional goals I hope to accomplish in 2017. I thought I’d take a few minutes and provide an update on how each of my goals are …
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to participate in the God as CEO breakfast lead by Paul TenHaken. More than 300 local business leaders attended the event. Paul challenged us to stop compartmentalizing our lives and to live out our Christian faith in the workplace. He shared examples of local companies that …
A few weeks back, I highlighted four things that the city of Sioux Falls will need if it wants to become a true entrepreneurial city that regularly spawns job-creating and capital-attracting startups. In short, if we want a stronger social community of entrepreneurs, we need to do a better job of sharing our success stories, …
A couple of weeks ago, I highlighted four things that I believe Sioux Falls will need if it wants to follow the footsteps of Austin, Boulder and other startup communities and become a city that regularly spawns startups that create new jobs, attract investment capital and foster economic growth. We will need opportunities for collaboration …
Over the last several months, the business community in Sioux Falls has taken a renewed interest in the role that entrepreneurship plays in bettering the city. The Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship has become more prominent in the community with their recent rebrand and remodel, as well as their launch of an accelerator program. The closure …
Last week, we received word that The Bakery, a co-working space and entrepreneurial community in Sioux Falls, will be giving up its physical space at the end of April and will become an online community of entrepreneurs that has in-person meetups and events at other locations. The Bakery is now the second co-working space to …
Below, you will find an unedited excerpt from my new book about building Internet-based businesses, Online Business from Scratch. To receive updates about the book, visit www.fromscratchbook.com. You might think that you don’t have enough work to keep an employee or contractor busy or that you can’t afford to bring on a team member right …
Online Business from Scratch, my most recent business book, is now available on Amazon. Many of my friends and readers would like to start a business and make money online, but they know it can’t be as easy as some online gurus make it sound. Would you like a realistic strategy that actually works for real people? …
Below, you will find an unedited excerpt from my new book about building Internet-based businesses, Online Business from Scratch. To receive updates about the book, visit www.fromscratchbook.com. There are several other creative strategies that you can use to make money in your business that don’t fall neatly into the broad categories of display advertising, affiliate …